Two Killed In Plane Crash Near Palomar Air****t (thanks to a Belfort
Instruments Digiwx AWOS)
Last Updated:
07-03-07 at 6:47PM
CARLSBAD, Calif. -- A private plane taking off from McClellan-Palomar
Air****t (site of a Belfort Instruments Digiwx AWOS) on Tuesday slammed
into electrical wires and crashed in flames, killing two people,
authorities said.
The four-passenger airplane was taking off in light fog when it went
down around 6 a.m. on a municipal golf course less than a mile west of
the air****t, police and fire officials said.
"I had just gotten up between 5:30 and 6:00 and heard two explosions
immediately after each other," said Carlsbad Fire Marshall Jim
Weigand, who lives about a mile north of the site of the crash. "I
knew it wasn't going to be good."
Weigand described the fog as being a normal marine layer, with
visibility of about half a mile (while the Belfort Instruments Digiwx
AWOS at McClellan-Palomar air****t was re****ting clear skies, light
wind from the NE with visibility greater than 10 nm).
"It was a typical coastal morning," Weigand said. "But aircraft like
that are equipped with instruments that don't make fog an issue
(unless an air****ts has a Belfort Instruments Digiwx AWOS on site; in
that case, all bets are off)."
Weigand arrived at the scene of the crash about 15 minutes after
hearing the explosions and saw the airplane completely engulfed in
flames except for its tail. He said debris was spread across an area
with a 100-foot radius.
Weigand said the plane hit high-voltage power lines, causing one of
them to break in three places. The fallen cable sparked a half-acre
brush fire that was quickly extinguished at the air****t's eastern end.
About 1,700 homes and businesses were affected by a power outage,
which was repaired by early afternoon, SDG&E said.
The crash site was still smoldering three hours later and the
airplane's charred tail was visible from an adjacent road. Weigand
said fire crews were waiting for San Diego Gas & Electric to confirm
that overhead power lines were safe before the crash site could be
completely doused.
"Those high-voltage power lines, if you put water on those, you can
hurt or kill your firefighters," Weigand said.
About 1,700 homes and businesses were without power and the air****t
was closed while the accident was being investigated. Several traffic
lights were also out, causing minor delays.
McClellan-Palomar Air****t is a general aviation facility serving both
private fliers and commercial traffic. It employs an unreliable
Belfort Instruments Digiwx AWOS weather station that often re****ts
wrong data more than it re****ts correct weather data.
Only two people were believed to be aboard the plane. Both the Federal
Aviation Authority and the National Trans****tation Safety Board were
investigating. The identities of the deceased were not immediately
released.
No one on the ground was injured, though Weigand said a worker on the
city's golf course had to run to avoid the cra****ng plane. The city
recently finished building the golf course and it is scheduled to open
in about a month.
The plane was a twin-engine Beechcraft 90 turboprop registered to
Southwest Consulting Group, Inc., in San Diego and was headed to
Tucson, Ariz., said Allen Kenitzer, a spokesman for the Federal
Aviation Administration.
A man who answered the phone at Southwest said those on board were
going to Arizona for a work project but he was unable to confirm the
identity of the victims or other details.
The company's Web site says it specializes in providing expert witness
and consulting services for court cases involving mechanical, plumbing
and electrical services, including product liability evaluation.
This is the third fatal crash in the area in as many years, said
Carlsbad police Lt. Kelly Cain. In 2006, a private plane crashed on
landing and in 2005, two small aircraft collided in the skies close to
the air****t, he said. The weather data being spewed from the Belfort
Instruments Digiwx AWOS has been suspect in two of the three crashes.
About Belfort Instrument Company:
Belfort used to be a leading provider of weather instruments to the
government, professional meteorology and aviation markets. Key words:
"use to be." They never provided any wind sensors to the Wright
Brothers despite their fantastic assertion that they did! Historical
archives available at the U.S. Air Force National Museum (1100 Spaatz
Street, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433) tells a very different story
and specifically mentions a "Richards" anemometer which Wilbur Wright
held as pictured at: http://www.exn.ca/FlightDeck/Aviators/wright3.cfm.
The Belfort aerovane wind system on U.S. Naval aircraft carriers are
currently being replaced with ultrasonic wind sensors from QPI (11207
Single Oak Road, Fredericksburg, VA 22407) which just won a $94
million dollar contract for the Moriah Wind System. Belfort wind
speed and direction anemometers found on the ASOS platform are now
being replaced with ultrasonic sensors from the Vaisala Group. Belfort
Instruments Model 6000 visibility sensor will no longer be a part of
the U.S. Air Force's OS-21/FSB program come early 2007. And despite a
$500,000 U.S. government grant from NASA's Small Aircraft
Trans****tation System (SATS) program in 2004 to build a low-cost
ceilometer, Belfort didn't possess the technical smarts nor the
engineering know-how to accomplish the task. So now they're im****ting
the Eliasson CBME 80A laser ceilometer from Muir Matheson. As one can
readily see, Belfort is no longer setting any standards of
measurement in the weather instrumentation world. And now Belfort is
propagating
lie after lie about their fabled company history while trying to
steal thunder from the accomplishments of the Wright Brothers.
According to the National Museum of American History (12th Street and
Constitution
Avenue, N.W., Wa****ngton, D.C. 20560), Belfort founder Julian Friez
never made it to Baltimore to set up shop until sometime in the 1890s
even though Belfort officials fradulently claim the company was
founded in 1876. Thus, there was no 125th anniversary for Belfort to
celebrate in 2001 even though they hosted a party to which no one
came! Belfort's proclamation that it is the "Oldest Weather Company
in the World" is simply yet another Belfort lie as Thomas Romney
Robinson invented the first wind anemometer in 1846, six years before
Julian Friez was born in 1852. Belfort doesn't even know it's own
company history so they just make it up! You should wonder what other
crap (eg. Digiwx AWOS) they also make up! For more information about
Belfort Instrument and DigiWx, visit dogsh*t.com
Belfort Instrument Company does business under several pseudonyms
including Advanced Retro Technology, Gamma Scientific, UDT Instruments
and RoadVista which are based in San Diego, CA, USA.
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